More than meets the I: How ITIL makes a difference in Mergers and Acquisitions activity

1. In your service management experience, how much of a foundation does ITIL® provide?

ITIL is “documented common sense”, useful when undergoing any transformation as an organization. Having that ITIL tried-and-tested structure in place helps to lighten the load and minimize risk.

2. How has ITIL made a difference in your organization, or organizations you've worked with?

I’ve seen ITIL make a difference in M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) activity where there needs to be new processes adopted; you can therefore benchmark against each other’s processes and against ITIL as a best practice referee. When used correctly – by adopting and adapting the guidance – I’ve seen ITIL make a massive difference in organizations: structure and control leads to predictability, less stress and more success.

Non-IT people see better management of services and no matter how much your organization wants to be agile, people still thrive on that predictability every day of the week! You need that level of predictability in, for example, your release management to allow agility. Having ITIL in place often allows people to validate what they’re already doing against a recognized framework.

3. How relevant is ITIL today and how do you think it complements other frameworks?

There is still room at the table for ITIL. Today, with a range of different best practice frameworks it has become something like a jigsaw puzzle: putting together different pieces in a slightly different way while maintaining certain ITIL best practices as a comfort blanket for people to hold on to in a transformation. This is still important in new paradigms as, for example, DevOps doesn’t tell you how to release or control changes.

No one framework is the answer to everything, which can be a risk if people choose to think that way. Rather, the best organizations are adopting, adapting and choosing the things in each framework that works for them.

Recommended for you

Comments

I heard a delightful rumour that Axelos is working on ITIL V4.0. Along the lines that I have previously suggested. Modernising the processes to take into account the new environment.A world which integrate with Agile Methodology, Lean Thinking, DevOps and IoT. Back in September I gave a presentation on this very topic to the Victorian chapter of itSMF. If the rumours is true, please let me know how I can get involved as a contributor and/or reviewer.